Getting Saucy Again

Priscilla Fitzsimmons remembers when a typical day included popping
Tums® every half hour and trying to ﬁnd food that wouldn’t aggravate her
heartburn. She frequently steered clear of her biggest triggers – milk,
oranges and spaghetti sauce – and would sometimes skip lunch
altogether.
“There were days when I would actually not eat
because it just made the heartburn worse,” the 34-year-old Thurston
resident recalled.

“I can eat what I want and I’m now able to get the nutrients in my diet I was missing out on before,” she said.

The
surgery that changed Priscilla’s life is called the Nissen
fundoplication, one of two surgical options at FMC for patients with
chronic acid reﬂux and heartburn. The surgery involves wrapping the
upper part of the stomach around the lower end of the esophagus and
stitching it into place.

Priscilla’s surgeon, Timothy Custer, M.D., is one of nine physicians with the Fairﬁeld
Medical
Heartburn Center. He said 95 percent of patients who undergo surgical
therapy for reﬂux experience excellent long-term control of their
symptoms.

“Critical to this success is the ability to obtain a
precise diagnosis and pursue standardized treatment,” he said. “The
Heartburn Center is able to provide consistent, state-of-the-art
management for those with diseases of the esophagus and has cared for
more than 1,500 people since it opened in 2012.”

Priscilla said
her heartburn began when she was a teenager and got progressively worse
during her twenties. For the past several years, she had been taking
medication daily, but getting little relief.

Prior to surgery, she underwent several tests to determine the severity of her acid reﬂux.

“All
of the people I worked with at the Heartburn Center were great,”
Priscilla said. “I was a bit anxious about the tests I had to take, but
nurse coordinator Tina Cass put me at ease.”

Priscilla said she
was not nervous about having surgery because she was so eager to start
feeling better again. She didn’t have to wait long to see positive
results; within one week of surgery, she was back to work and no longer
experiencing issues with eating and sleeping.

“I used to wake up in the mornings and dread how I would feel,” she said. “Now I wake up feeling awesome.”

To
learn more about the Fairﬁeld Medical Heartburn Center or to schedule a
free nurse consultation, call 740-689-6486.